“No problem. I want to see Chloe anyway. It makes you grateful they're alive, doesn't it?”
Page nodded, thinking of what Brad had said in the heat of the moment about not wanting Allie to be less than perfect. But he seemed to believe it. “I'd rather have Allie in any state, than lose her. Maybe that's wrong of me, but that's how I feel. Brad says he'd rather lose her than have her be limited in any way.”
“That's a pretty elitist view of life, and awfully black and white. I agree with you, I'd rather have whatever I could get, than nothing.” Page agreed with him, but oddly enough, not about her marriage. She was much less willing to compromise there, but in her eyes that was different.
“He can't seem to face what's happening. He's running away from it,” she said quietly, trying not to get angry again thinking of his disappearances, as recently as the night before.
“Some people can't handle this kind of thing.”
“Yeah, like Dana …Brad … so how come we get stuck with it? Are we so brave? Or just stupid?” Page smiled at him.
“Probably both,” he grinned, “no choice, I guess. When there's no one else there, you do what you have to.” He looked at her honestly. He had spent enough time with her now to ask her a straight question. “It doesn't make you mad?” He was intrigued about her, and her willingness to accept what was obviously a less than perfect marriage. Brad had scarcely been around since the accident, and Trygve knew it.
“Actually, it makes me furious,” she admitted with a smile. “We just had a knock-down-drag-out fight about it at lunchtime.”
“At least you're human. It used to make me mad too, when Dana was never around when I needed her, or the kids did.”
“In this case, there are some other complications.”
Trygve nodded, trying not to ask any further questions. And then finally, he couldn't resist, and asked her anyway.
“Serious complications?”
“It looks that way,” she said honestly. “Possibly terminal.”
“Then it came as a surprise?” he asked gently.
“Actually, yes. I've been married for sixteen years and up until three days ago, I thought our marriage was terrific,” she said as they approached the hospital. “Apparently, I made a mistake. A big one.”
“Maybe not. Maybe this is just the hard part. Every marriage hits a rough spot, now and then.”
She shook her head, thinking about it. “There was a lot I didn't know. I've been kidding myself for a long time, and I didn't know it. But now that I do know it's hard to pretend it's not happening. I just can't do that. The timing is pretty rotten.” She looked grim as she explained it to him.
“Remember what I said before, some people go off the deep end when faced with a crisis.”
“I think he's been off it for a long time. He just happened to get caught with his pants down.” She smiled ruefully, and Trygve laughed at her expression, and the way she'd said it.
“Bad luck for him.” Trygve smiled. Page was amazed at the ease with which she spoke to him. She seemed to be able to tell him anything. Things she certainly wouldn't have told her sister or even Jane Gilson, who was an old friend, but not a real confidant. After the rigors of her early life, she had never gotten close to anyone except Brad, which made his betrayal all the more painful. And now, much to her surprise she could tell Trygve things she might even have hesitated telling Brad before all this happened.
They were at the hospital by then, and they headed for ICU, still subdued by the aura of the funeral, but it was almost a relief for both of them to see their children. Chloe was stirring a little bit, but doing fairly well, and Allie was the same. For the moment, her condition was stable.
Page left before Trygve this time. She went home around five o'clock to pick Andy up at Jane's. The car pool had taken him to baseball, and he would have been home by then. And by the time she drove to her house, she couldn't wait to see him.
It had been an agonizing afternoon, and the grief of Phillip's funeral took her breath away every time she thought of the young people crying for him, or the faces of his parents. They had looked inconsolable as they left the church, and Page's heart had gone out to them. She could still hear the high school chorus singing in her head as she rang the bell at Jane's house.
“Hi, how are you?” Jane looked at her, and then frowned as Page walked in. “Or shouldn't I ask?” Maybe things had gotten worse. Page looked drawn and pale and desperately unhappy.
“I'm okay,” she said quietly. “I went to Phillip Chapman's funeral.”
“How was it?” Jane asked as Page sat down on the couch and looked exhausted.
“About as bad as you'd expect. There were four hundred sobbing kids, and half as many parents.”